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Personally, being an old geezer who hasn't been in touch with the world since 1989 (Hey R.E.M.!!!), I'm not even sure what "Facebook" involves.

So, may I put a question to the Treeleaf community as to what you think?

I do not want to make Treeleaf about prostelitizing in any way. On the other hand, I have put a couple of notices into Tricycle and Buddhadharma magazines (and Buddhist Geeks), because I wanted to make Treeleaf known and available to folks who already had an interest in Zen practice, but could use its resources (you know, because of being unable to commute to another Sangha). But I am not interested in just fishing for folks who would not know a Zen Dojo from a Sushi Bar, and just would be here out of a passing curiosity.

It is not that I don't want to tell those folks how wonderful Zen Practice is, but more that I do not feel equipped to teach large numbers of folks through Treeleaf who lack a pre-existing interest and some basic grounding in Buddhism and Zen Practice (a few complete 'newbies' is fine and glad to have ya', but not a hoard of casual visitors who might think "Master Tozan" is a character from Dragonball Z). Not to say that a single Facebook page will attract hoards of folks.

Any thoughts on this, and whether you think the Facebook listing is a good idea?

I don't really know what to expect either - but probably not much in terms of traffic.

Facebook tends to be a slightly older crowd than Myspace I think, at least that's been my experience. Basically it's just a way of finding old friends (like classmates.com) and keeping track of what your friends are up to (travel plans, what they're reading, photos from last night's bad sweater party, etc) plus a bit of business networking.

The only way people will find the page is (1) if they search for "zendo" or (2) if they are already friends with someone who becomes a "fan" of Treeleaf and they see that in their mini-news feed and click on it. Assuming they are friends with an existing Treeleafer, then I think there's a good chance they have some interest or knowledge of Buddhism. Maybe.

I think a Facebook presence is a fine idea. I've got one (and a Myspace account) because I am a Librarian and that is where the Teens and young people are. (And they often ask me to help them with their Facebook or Myspace pages so I have to know how it works.) My Library has their own Myspace account.

I don't think it will attract hoards, but may attract diligent seekers (and a few crackpots, no doubt.)

If the response is overwhelming (which will tell us something in itself) we can always remove the page.

For a living, I am actually a "social media strategist" for a company that owns many different websites. That means it's my job to use things like MySpace and Facebook to drive traffic to my company's various sites. In my experience, it takes a much more concerted effort to drive an amount of traffic that might include hoards of newbies. I think Facebook and/or MySpace pages will just provide current Sangha members another way of affiliating with Treeleaf on sites where they already have accounts, and it will bring in a few new people who already have an interest in Zen and are searching for groups with related keywords. I think it's a great way to branch out.